Amir Taheri describes the reaction to his article in the NY Post alleging that BHO was trying to scuttle negotiations between the Iraqi government and the outgoing Bush administration in Standpoint Magazine.
When I quoted Obama’s own words opposing the SOFA, a second tactic was deployed. This consisted of personal attacks on me, with the help of material circulated by my enemies over the years: the Khomeinists, those nostalgic for Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda and its imitators, and Islamofascists who hate me for reasons of their own. The addition of Obamists to the list of my enemies is regrettable but does not change the facts. Obama militants attacked my email accounts and used the marshlands of the internet to unleash the deadly mosquitoes of rumour and innuendo against me. … I was threatened with having my US citizenship – which I don’t have and have never applied for – withdrawn by a future Obama administration. Some Obamists, unaware that I do not live in the US, even threatened to reveal my address and expose me to physical violence. … The message most often conveyed to me was: withdraw and all will be forgiven.
That’s quite a charge. I imagine Taheri will be asked to describe these attacks in a little more detail. What’s interesting is Taheri’s defense. You can’t do this to me, I’m not an American.. The questions for me are 1) how can we substantiate or refute charges like this; 2) who are these “Obamists” that Taheri speaks of, if they exist? Are they his spontaneous defenders? Do they coordinate in some way? I think we are entering a period in which we really have to put our analytic hat on to get at the facts. Jim Lindgren at the Volokh Conspiracy says:
What we are unlikely to see over the next four years is progress on serious defects in the press and the electoral process that this election revealed. … First, we have never had so many illegal campaign contributions, including illegal foreign contributions, as we had this year. … Second, (in my lifetime at least) we have never had so much systematic election fraud …
Last, the press’s performance in 2008 has been appalling. Unfortunately, we have a mediated democracy, mediated by the press. Until the newsrooms are integrated politically, it is difficult for citizens to get the information they need to make informed decisions.
“Integrated politically?” Somehow I don’t think there will ever be affirmative action for conservatives. Nor should they seek it.
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30 Comments
1. Uncle Jefe:“Somehow I don’t think there will ever be affirmative action for conservatives. Nor should they seek it.”
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:04 pm 2. whiskey:Nor would it be granted.
The answer is that we will have an end-run around the press and threats to match threats. That is how human beings react.
It’s not going away, it is the nature of the struggle between the elites who hate and despise the people and the populists who feel likewise. Tinged with racial animosity, class divisions, hatred on all sides. It won’t go away unless people are mollified with money and power. And there is only a bit of that.
The elites are angry and frustrated because they’ve been waiting to tear down society and start from zero for ages, and the populists keep frustrating them. Now they have their Jim Jones, and everyone will drink the Kool Aide.
There won’t be an Army of Davids, because Obama will Fairness Doctrine the Internet. But that just guarantees a mob, sooner or later. I could see this coming a mile away. The whole point of the election and Obama himself is to crush Joe the Plumber and everyone like him. Which is going to guarantee constant, grinding, low-level warfare.
Boundaries are eroded. Black Panthers carrying nightsticks at polls, threatening Republican voters. This is well documented and going to create it’s own backlash. The rules are: one side can do anything, the other nothing, that’s no consensual rule-set. The other side will simply stop playing by ANY rules.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:15 pm 3. truepeers:Yes, conservatives often don’t appreciate that “fair and balanced” is not a solution to liberal media bias; it is still a catch phrase for a liberal world view. An honest search for truth will be and often is necessarily political; honesty means putting one’s colours in full view so that people can judge you accordingly; intellectual integrity is not about hiding what you are. “Fair and balanced” means deferring to an elite who get to decide what views are respectably right and which left, so that they may be “balanced”, excluding all that is too extreme. Not only do many questions not deserve “equal opportunity” for those who take the invidious side, but these elites must be chosen through a process of mutual accreditation that only insures a certain group think.
What we need is more intellectual integrity in the media; calling for balance only encourages a kind of liberal relativism that makes it impossible for the journalist to become a serious thinker with a centre of his own.
Disinterestedness is an important thing in a free society and it has its places (e.g. the law, and certain academic functions, ideally) but I don’t think we need a media that pretends to disinterestedness. They are not an expert class capable of passing judgment on those specific questions that call for disinterestedness.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:15 pm 4. sirius_sir:withdraw and all will be forgiven.
Sounds a little like something bin Laden might say.
It remains to be seen if Obama carries through on the threat to do just exactly that wrt Iraq. (First, of course, he must win the election.) Meanwhile the analysis that “we are unlikely to see over the next four years… progress on serious defects in the press and the electoral process” seems correct. The reason, of course, is that the powers that be (assuming an Obama win, Democratic super-majority, and concommitant mass media retrenchment) appear not about to withdraw even an inch on that front.
But things will change. They always do. For those left disenfranchised by current events we may do worse than continue to work for and promote change we can believe in.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:32 pm 5. veracious:Ah, surely not the first assault of the internet brown_shirts. Virtual assaults; these may be perfect crimes in what is likely to be the primary _global_common_ going forward. The battle of the beast will be heavy upon the network of thought.
Yes, maybe adhoc sympathizers this time, but I suspect one of the ways to spend scores of hundred billion dollars, to influence individuals, families, corporations and nations. The intelligence behind that amount of money would use a plethora of approaches to achieve desired results. Unfortunately, brown_shirts insist on their results. Sweet talk, bribes, threats through the multiple communication mediums, virtual assault and finally physical assualt or murder.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:32 pm 6. Bob Murphy:I’ve read Amir Tahiri’s stuff for years. I take him pretty seriously. To me he has some credibility and I won’t dismiss his harrassment claims lightly.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:51 pm 7. Cannoneer No. 4:Every fascism we fought in the 20th century used goon squads and intimidation as a matter of course.
And all the populations had been disarmed.
1) how can we substantiate or refute charges like this;
Taheri would have to publish the emails and link to the sites on which threats to him were made. Or, based on his reputation and credibility, some of us would take his word for it.
2) who are these “Obamists” that Taheri speaks of, if they exist?
Oh, they exist alright. They, too, are Civilian Irregular Information Operators; amateur PSYOPers and hacker CNAers.
Are they his spontaneous defenders?
Some are. Some have been recruited for this kind of work. Some are mercenaries. Some are hopeless dweebs with Cheeto-stained fingers making their mark on the world from Mama’s basement.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:51 pm 8. RWE:Unfortunately, the conclusion you reach is that conservatives simply will have to stand off and snipe. Someone will write the books on the illegal campaign contributions, on the press bias, on the impact of tax policies, on loss of freedom of speech, on the threats being made, on the inanities of the Left, on the wasted money, and so forth.
And we need to keep pointing out that the dems don’t seem to be the least bit inclined to do anything about the likes of Congressman William Jefferson or Charles Rangle, both caught red-handed and still in office.
This is not going to be fun. The trouble with mud wrestling with a pig is that you both get dirty and the pig likes it. The Left loves to snipe and we don’t. So we buy a wetsuit. And share favorite recipes for pulled pork.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:54 pm 9. peterike:I’m not one to tell our good and wise host what to do, but W man… we need you to declare an open thread for tonight!!
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:54 pm 10. whiskey:When people are pushed, they tend to push back. This is particularly true of those who have a little, not a lot, and thus more to lose. The rich and comfortable can shrug off the loss of a wallet, and a few hundred dollars. Not so the working man. Who will fight to the death for it.
As the threats move outwards from writers like Taheri to guys like Joe the Plumber, the resistance gets bigger. It’s one thing for a clown like Ayers to preen and strut around in Southside Chicago. It’s another for that to happen nationally.
People will be surprised.
Nov 4, 2008 - 5:56 pm 11. trangbang68:Part of the problem is our side is largely fighting within the rules of civility and openness against amoral liars, thieves and grifters who have no compunction about bending the rules to obtain their aims. The variable comes when they push too hard and its on. The New Black Panther thugs in Philly are treading close to that line. The irony is win or lose for Obama, turning the thugs loose will be largely detrimental to his metrosexual white supporters in the urban areas. They are largely unarmed except for magazines full of guilt and delusion. Maybe if enough of them get righteously beat down they’ll become a new generation of Neo-cons.
Nov 4, 2008 - 6:13 pm 12. Aristide:trangbang68,
The irony is win or lose for Obama, turning the thugs loose will be largely detrimental to his metrosexual white supporters in the urban areas.
I suspect the use of thugs will be more selective than that.
They are organizing at different levels, Like this quasi-paramilitary “City Year” group. Whip them into shape then insert then into an environment where more radical elements escalate the situation. These cream-puffs get their heads cracked by authorities and some of them turn radical. It worked well in the 60’s and 70’s.
This video shows a cleaver ways of whipping them into shape. Pay attention to the people recording this and their reaction to events at 2:13.
Here another video of them being whipped up!
These sheep are being led and they don’t even know it!
Nov 4, 2008 - 6:39 pm 13. NahnCee:Increasingly, I think the entities harassing others in the name of Obama are children. We’ve seen video’s of 9-year-olds sealing lawn signs, and the fact that the harassing e-mails that Tahir is receiving don’t know that he lives in France is an interesting point of ignorance. He’s been writing for at least four years now, writing well and would be what I consider to be well-known.
Posting addresses and making threats that are the equivalent of “we won’t love you any more” just sound so junior high school. Hacking is also something that children can do, although the Palin e-mail hacker turned out to be a college student.
I just wonder how much of the hard and bitter feelings in our political scene – and now branching out across the sea to France – are the result of little kids who’ve heard their (divorced) parents ranting at the breakfast table and are striking a blow for democracy in their own small vicious way.
If it *is* children it will be even harder to rein in than any hired and official Obama hit team. Is Constitutional freedom of speech guaranteed to EVERY American, no matter how young and stupid they might be?
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:03 pm 14. NahnCee:BTW Wretchard – the beguine was begun. It’s “when we begin the beguine” – which wikipedia says a beguine is a spirited ballroom dance. Who knew?
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:06 pm 15. sirius_sir:NahnCee… when we stop tiptoeing around the problem and begin to walk the walk or dance the dance… prepatory to fighting the good fight.
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:14 pm 16. Unsk:The long term strategy for the Dems has been to grow the victim class and those dependent on the handouts of government.
The Dems sure achieved it with the sub prime con. With the coming collapse, the victims will surely grow in multitudes. Will they become members of the new victim class and act accordingly?
Obama will control the narrative through any means possible, including Black Panther thugs like today. Obama will surely over-reach, and screw up the economy and perhaps the entire world big time. But will the public blame him, or credit him for saving the country as so many did with FDR? Will a counter narrative even be allowed to be voiced?
The key battlefield of this coming cold civil war will be for the hearts and minds of the public.
That is the battle we must win. Mc Cain ceded too much of the battlefield on too many issues to win.
I lost my cookies on the carpet when Fox interviewed some senior Mc Cain official after Fox declared Ohio for the One. She said something like “the public had just had it with the way the Republicans ran Washington”. OMG
We need to clean house of RINO’s like her.
Nov 4, 2008 - 8:44 pm 17. Beaglescout:Back in the heady early days of the American experiment the media was gleefully, virulently partisan. It descended directly from pamphlets and polemics. There was none of this “impartial” or “objective” journalism stuff that was created as a byproduct of the process of granting government monopoly rights over broadcast spectra to individual radio and television stations. In other words, the whole idea of “objective” journalism came out of the same kind of thinking that created the Fairness Doctrine, which was intended to encourage a multiplicity of views in a scarce medium but actually discouraged all views. Now unused broadcast spectra are not scarce. There is unused AM spectrum everywhere in the US, and unused FM spectrum in most cities and all less populous areas. So scarcity is not a good argument, as the only scarcity is that created by government monopoly granting power. Now that we have a true multiplicity of views on the radio, the internet, and fox news, it makes no sense whatsoever to impose a new Fairness Doctrine to mess it up. No sense, that is, unless the actual intention is to stifle free debate.
It falls to those who recognize the problem and the solution to come up with, or support, the pamphleteers and polemicists who rise up however we can. Lulu.com offers one business model. Cafe Press offers another. Blog businesses like Pajamas offer yet another business model. But none of these have made it possible to be a full-time blogger making the kind of money someone with a family needs to make. And none have opened up the opportunity to be anything other than an opinion columnist. Where are the spots for beat reporters, advertising writers, editors, cub reporters? Where is the revenue model that would attract someone with deep pockets to be the publisher of this enterprise who lends it a unifying vision, a consistent style, and operating capital?
Nov 4, 2008 - 8:44 pm 18. Paul from Florida:Like damage in the Internet, we should just work around it. Ignore, as much as possible. Be happy. Find progress. Grow your family. Dodge, avoid, drag feet the effects of the left.
The US is not America. America existed before Columbus. America is a state of mind, not a place. Because a place calls its self America, that doesn’t mean it is America. Free people are not prisoners of a place, of a time or of a title.
Like the ancient cities of Greece, the Republic of Rome, the Venetian, the Dutch Republics, there will be another Republic.
A minority of people, only, want to be free. The rest are more than willing to trade for things their possibility of something more. This is not to be angered about. It is natural. Rather the exception is to be thanked for.
Nov 4, 2008 - 8:47 pm 19. Beaglescout:Shannon Love talks about the evolution of the “objective” media better than I can here.
Nov 4, 2008 - 8:53 pm 20. feeblemind:re Whiskey comment #2: I fear the Black Panther security teams are a preview of Obama’s proposed Cilivilian Security Corps.
Nov 4, 2008 - 10:12 pm 21. Beaglescout:Are Obama’s civilian security corps a new kind of brownshirt or are they Thomas P. M. Barnett’s System Administrator corps by another name?
Nov 4, 2008 - 10:28 pm 22. Derek:This account brought to mind some thoughts I had earlier watching the blatant one sided-ness of the media coverage of the election.
Did the Obama campaign directly or indirectly threaten journalists in some way if they didn’t toe the party line?
Derek
Nov 4, 2008 - 10:46 pm 23. Down with the “Objective” Media « Beagle Scout:[...] Culture War, Media Bias | Tags: Fairness Doctrine, Journalism, Media, Media Bias | A comment from Belmont [...]
Nov 4, 2008 - 11:24 pm 24. Wadeusaf:The piece by Mr. Tahari printed in the NY Post was a shoddy bit of “journalism” to begin with. Sources not mentioned, quotes not attributed and opinion substituting for fact. I thought I was reading the NYT editorial page. It was in fact an opinion dressed as an analysis pretending to be news. I have not read any statements supporting the allegations of the original piece, but I will admit to hearing statements that support the “spirit” of the article.
To be honest the gents credentials are questionable . So before giving credence to his complaints I would insist on them being supported by fact, physical evidence and a full police report. With out such verifiable proof, the guy is either barking at the wrong moon, or just barking. I would hold Nir of RS to no greater standards than I would wish to hold Mr. Tahiri to.
Nov 4, 2008 - 11:40 pm 25. Wadeusaf:The nature of the article still does not excuse the “swarm” approach of killing the messenger. Controlling who has access to a web site, and how they can express themselves is a measure of feedback but not necessarily a means of generating income. I am not sure that the web is sophisticated enough to successfully host an alternative to corporate sponsored network news or even pamphleteers. Note the struggles of Stratfor in selling their wares. Or Townhall in staying afloat. It appears that the only stuff selling well on the net is porn.
Show us a little shoulder Richard? nawt.
Nov 5, 2008 - 4:25 am 26. Fat Man:I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
Nov 5, 2008 - 7:12 am 27. njartist:@Aristide
Nov 5, 2008 - 3:12 pm 28. Subotai Bahadur:Damn. City Year resembles a paramilitary group and a cult bound into one.
Analysing this tactically, the Democrats and their allies farther to the Left are in reality not bound by any laws or codes of conduct. They can lie, cheat, steal, assault, blackmail, and it is only a matter of chance that it is not yet murder. No matter what they do, even if caught they are almost never prosecuted and if they are prosecuted at worst they get a wrist slap. The Republicans, and those to their right, are not allowed to get away with anything,even specifically legal things.
The result is that the Left always wins. This is not a situation that can continue over time. Either the Right will be wiped out, or hopefully they learn to fight back as effectively. They have to meet and match the actions of the Left. When the rule of law is moot, the law of the jungle steps in. Right now, the law is moot in reference to the Left. That may soon be a matter of formal government policy as it already is a matter of party policy. Someday, Obama’s Black Panthers, or his “Civilian National Defense Corps” will attempt to bully someone who is willing to fight back. Clubs may be met with clubs, or the continuum of force may jump several magnitudes. Since our laws about registration, voting, and campaigning will never be enforced equitably, political change will start to be determined by brute force. You might want to take a look at Germany from 1918-1923 when the political life of the country was played out in armed conflicts between the Freikorps and the various militias of the German Communist Party. These were actual military engagements involving small arms, automatic weapons, and artillery. It started out with street fighting and escalated. When you see Obama’s supporters armed with clubs and blocking access to polling places, you are seeing the first steps of what may well be a similar process.
Nov 6, 2008 - 12:42 am 29. Wadeusaf:When you see Philly law enforcement’s requests obeyed, the club wielding Obama supporters complying and even learning (even if it is for the first time?) what democracy is about, there is hope.
There might even be change in the air…, or maybe not. Too bad those club wielding gents couldn’t have learned in school what an open and fair election entailed, rather than have the Philadelphia PD apply the lessons. While I think Obama may be the real time benefactor of such ignorance, he is not to blame.
“The significant problems that we face today cannot be solved with the same
Nov 6, 2008 - 4:20 am 30. Ms. Know:mentality that created them”. Albert Einstein once observed. However we should be able to agree on what the problem is.
http://www.portstephens.local-e.nsw.gov.au/files/62673/File/SustainableWasteManagement.pdf
I agree that the left-wing illuminati grow the class of those on welfare and free healthcare, that way they keep their majority vote because they don’t want to get up and work.
Nov 15, 2008 - 10:20 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.